The Witness
by totallyPSYCHED
Summary: It's been two months since the Fischer project. It was decided that Ariadne would stay away from their group, for her safety. Cobb needs money so he takes a new job, but this one job brigs the team closer to Ariadne than they ever wanted to be...


**OK. SO this is NOT my first story here, I had another account before this... This story does have A/A! just not in the first chapter ^^**

**Please Review and ENJOY. :)**

Two months had past since the Fischer project. Dom Cobb couldn't forget the thrill of dreams, despite trying to burry the longing deep inside him. He knew he had to be there for his children; he needed to be the loving parent who was gone for song long. Even the most faithful parent needed an income though, and with his résumé noticeably blank, Cobb could not forget his past. The other team members were comfortably living off Saito's pay; however, Cobb paid for his children and house, and despite his father in law's help his money was still disappearing faster then was comfortable.

A week after the Fischer project, Cobb was surfing the Internet, when he came across a "make your own website" advertisement. Feeling a sudden inspiration, Cobb clicked on the ad and started to create a website. Without thinking he titled the website, "Dreams". Writing the fake name "John Charles", Cobb wrote about extraction and inception, but kept it vague. He said he specialized in subconscious protection and infiltration. For contact information, he put his second cell pone number, the number that was bought illegally and couldn't be traced back to him. He bought the cell phone illegally two years ago while working on an extraction case with Arthur. Cobb knew it was dangerous to promote his abilities and shouldn't make the website, so he called Arthur to consult about it.

"Go for it. Not a lot of people will find it, since there's so many other websites promoting extraction teams." Arthur said calmly. Before hanging up, He and Cobb decided to work together if any job offers came up. Arthur didn't need the money, but wanted to help his friend. Cobb agreed, and finished his website.

For a few weeks after the website was created, Cobb regularly checked it to see if any job offers came up. There was zero offers and only and handful of people viewed the website. After a while, Cobb stopped checking, and eventually he forgot about the site almost completely.

Two months of job applications and interviews passed without any outcome. After a day in the park with James, Phillipa, and their grandpa Miles, who was visiting from France, Cobb came home and decided to give up on the job hunting. Cobb realized that a normal job wasn't in his near future. Almost as if that thought triggered something he remembered the website he made, and decided to check it. Opening up to the home page, he saw there were more views, and clicked on the comments section. There were a few questions about the site, some spam and some chain letters, but one comment caught his eye. It was anonymous, and read:

"I am interested in a job for you Mr. John Charles, I won't call until I have your permission. Answer 'Yes' if you wish for me to call and explain the job."

A rush of adrenaline zinged through Cobb's heart as he read the comment. His hand shot out to his phone and he shakily dialed Arthur's number.

"Hello?"

"Arthur. It's Dom."

"Dom? Are you okay? You sound like…you heard Eames drunk karaoke…what's wrong?" Arthur asked quizzically.

Cobb took a breath, "We have a job offer from the website I made." There was silence on the other side of the line for a minute.

"Are we going to take it?" Arthur asked finally.

Cobb sighed. "I think we should tell everybody about the offer, and when the anonymous employer calls me and describes the job, we will decide as a group whether it's harmless or some sort of trap."

"Sounds like a plan." Arthur agreed.

"Good. You can contact Yusuf and Eames." Cobb directed.

"Uh. Great. Eames." Arthur complained, making Cobb chuckle at the distain in his voice. Arthur was silent for a beat and then asked the question Cobb had been waiting for. "What…What about Ariadne?" Cobb smiled wearily upon hearing the longing in his co-worker's voice as he spoke her name.

"We already discussed this," Cobb spoke calmly. "Now that I'm not having problems anymore [note: he's talking about Mal, but he's still not over her enough to speak her name] I can build the dreams. They might not be as good as Ariadne's architecture, but Miles and I both agreed it would be safer and best for her if she stayed out of the business of Dreams."

"Shouldn't that be her decision?" Arthur shot back, angrily.

"I'm just trying to do what's best for everyone." Cobb sighed. It seems he had been sighing a lot recently. "Besides, since we haven't contacted her after the Fischer project, there's a very slim change she would find out about this and become jealous."

"Fine. I understand. Call me when you find out what the job is." Arthur muttered, and hung up.

Cobb stared at the phone resting in his hands for a moment, and ran his fingers over the buttons, with a shake of his head as if to clear his thoughts, he placed the phone on his desk, and replied to the message with the simple three-lettered word as directed. Then Cobb waited, spinning his top just to make sure it was reality. The top fell over.

That night Cobb ate dinner, put his kids to bed, and drove Miles back to his hotel. When the house was quiet, Cobb lay on the couch with the phone resting on his chest, and continued to wait for the daunting phone call. At three in the morning, the shrill ringing pierced Cobb's ears. The sound snapped him out of the daydream of Mal he was having. [Note: he can't actually dream] Spinning his top to confirm reality, Cobb saw the private number, and answered with a scratchy, "Hello?"

"Hello, this is Annabel Sear from the FBI. Are you Dominic Cobb?" A clear professional woman's voice replied.

Cobb blinked in surprise. "I never gave you my real name…"

"We're the FBI, we have sources, and you're flimsy 'Mr. Charles' was easy enough for us to crack."

Cobb felt his face blush with the embarrassment of her criticism. He was also fairly confused. "What kind of job does the FBI want?"

The women cleared her voice with a cough. "We've found out quite a lot about you're abilities from people who hired you freelance, and people from Cobol Engineering. You seem to be the most skilled extractor around. Right now we have a murder case with only one witness and I need you to find out what she saw."

"And…why can't you just ask her?"

"The witness is in shock. She can't speak about it, and is trying to block it from her mind. This one witness can help solve the case, so I need you to perform both inception and extraction. You have to extract what she saw, and use inception to put the idea in her mind that she never saw the murder in the first place. I fear the shock of what she saw is eating away at her, and the best thing is for her to forget about the brutal murder completely."

"Why me? Why not some other extractor?" Cobb asked, perplexed.

"Believe me, we tried a number of people, all of which ended up being killed instantly before they could do anything. The witness is trained in subconscious protection, and only the best could break in." The FBI agent stated smoothly. Cobb ran a hand through his hair, stressed. His mind fought about whether he should take the case of not, but he finally gave up and decided it was worth a shot.

"Fine. I'll take it. What's the Witness's name?"

"Her name is Ariadne. I'll call you tomorrow about where to meet up." The phone clicked before an unblinking Cobb could react.

"Ariadne…" His hand reached out and he shakily started to dial Arthur's phone number.


End file.
